The Master of Fear
by anothergirldreamings
Summary: A twenty-one year old Andrea finds herself in the midst of an attempt to end the human race made by an offworlder when she meets a man who changes everything for her. Threatening the lives of its 655,000 inhabitants, Andrea and the Doctor work together to save them and the rest of the world.


The world seemed as if it was ending; the lights in the museum were flickering, screams of erupting from children and teens, parents were grabbing for their young ones, and security guards were rushing around in different directions. All except one. Boston's Museum of Science guard 1182 stood still in terror, her head tilted back towards the glass roof watching as black clouds that engulfed the blue, midmorning sky. Andrea Wilson, twenty-one, stood frozen in the middle of a frantic crowd, her feet not moving unless she was shoved by a frightened museum-goer. The roar of wind from outside blew the heavy wooden doors open, blowing papers from the front desk and information booths around the main floor.

When Andrea finally pulled her petrified gaze from the glass to observe the scene she was stuck in she noticed that through the fast paced frenzy, a man in a long trench coat stood twenty feet away looking up. From what she could see he looked as if he was in his early thirties, brown hair, dark eyes, a well defined jaw line from the shadows overhead. There was something off about him, Andrea could feel it as she studied him more closely through the way he carried himself, how he stood, the way his eyes darted around the room until they met hers. There was a coldness to his eyes, a fear that was endless. It intrigued the young adult, the way the man stared back at her, deducing Andrea's being. She watched as he turned and raced for the escalators. Processing what was happening slowly, she raced after him, curious as to what was going through the strange man's head.

"Wait!" Andrea called after him, her voice breathless from dodging the crowds of people moving around in no particular order. Her eyes searched for the man in the trenchcoat in the shadows of the clouds that covered the sky above the museum, a cold adrenaline pumping through her veins. Through the screams Andrea fixated on to the sound of a security alarm from a fire exit stairwell door being open.

 _Left two._ She thought and pushed through the stinging pain in her chest towards the open door, the shadow of the man played across the dimly lit wall of the gray stairwell. Three floors they climbed up, the heavy metal door swung open at the top a rush of wind washing into the tight space. The sky was visible through the seven by three foot rectangle hole in the wall. The sky was turning black and wind was blowing as all hell, the strength of the gust even knocked the twenty year old down to her knees. Andrea frantically pulled herself up, only a couple steps until the roof, she had lost sight of the man who was steps in front of her.

When Andrea reached the roof the adrenaline had finally settled into her bloodstream, it ran cold with fear as she watched the world around the science center. The early afternoon atmosphere was gone, torn apart by the menacing storm that now swallowed the age old city. Her breath was short as she took in the scenery; trees fallen over the sidewalk, people were running to and from buildings looking for a safe place to hide, cars were stopped in the middle of streets. This was chaos, a hell that had finally been reached on earth. Andrea's eyes traced the building's grey, concrete floor until she spotted the mysterious man standing on the edge of the building. His coat billowed in the wind, his red converse seemed to glow against the dark and gloomy backdrop of the city.

"What is this?" Andrea called over the howling wind.

The strange man turned to her, "Something bad, something very very bad." The two strangers stood there in silence, watching the sky as it darkened to a charcoal grey turning the city, and everything in it, into a shadow. His face was unchanging as the two of them stood there in the midst of all the chaos, Andrea's eyes caught his.

"Who are you?" Her voice was no longer breathless from the chase, however it shook with panic much like the rest of her body. The man left side of his mouth twisted up into a sly, asymmetrical smile.

"Likewise." His voice was barely audible over the wind, but to Andrea the accent the man has was not from the States. She looked up and saw him wink, the man jumped off of the ledge and stepped next to her. The wind picked up, thunder had echoed in the distance causing the girl's shoulders to tense and her eyes to shut forcefully and the rain had finally started to fall. The man held out a hand towards the frightened girl, her eyes searched his as she looked reluctantly at the outstretched hand. A lightning bolt lit up Boston, it stretched across the sky slowly, gripping at the dark clouds as it ripped through them with ease, eventually anchoring down into the hellish waters of the bay. The flash of light dragged along for nearly two minutes, both of the strangers watched as it tore up the sky with such precision as if it were being carved with an exacto knife. Andrea stared in disbelief, her eyes were lit in a fiery terror.

"What the hell was that?" She exclaimed, pieces of raven hair had slipped from her bun and brushed against her pale face. The man turned, his face was painted in a concerned, almost confused expression of interest.

"Blimey, I have no idea," he paused looking back. "But I do believe that whatever that was is not pleasant."

"What are we going to do?" Andrea asked, her eyes still tracing across the sky frantically, looking for another anomaly comparable to the slow bolt of electricity.

"Well Andrea, we're are going to run." The man was close again, she turned to him and focused on his eyes: the depth and darkness in them was alike the clouds that covered her city.

"I'm the Doctor," he said, his hand reached toward her. "Are you ready to run?" His eyes were frantic, so much movement was inside as the wheels in his head were turning.

"Yeah." She mumbled her head bobbed, her lips twisting into a smile. Their fingers tightened around each other's hand as the Doctor pulled the young woman behind, her feet stumbling over the flat surface. There was still a sense of confusion that settled over her: the man, the Doctor, was a mysterious man who held strongly onto her as much as she held onto him. The two raced down the stairs, Andrea fumbling after him, her mind racing to other places as she tried to rationalize the situations as they played on.

The Doctor and Andrea burst through the stairwell door on the third floor, simultaneously halting their running pace as they took two more steps out into the open floor. People were frozen, suspended in time, with expressions of despair painted across every single one of their faces. The people's skin were pale, a sickness of fear, there were tears on their cheeks, inaudible screams came from the children, the eyes, those that were open, were marbles of pure terror. Andrea ran to the railing, peering over it to see the bottom two floors, the sight was unnerving. She felt sick seeing the guard at the bottom, he looked up in what seemed like her direction, his mouth was gaped open as he had looked up.

There was a hand wrapped around her bicep, though the girl still stared, mesmerized by the scene. Andrea turned to look back at the Doctor but he was no longer by her side, she saw his coat billowing down the stairs and she rushed to follow. She followed him down to the ground floor, where the two of them had been twenty minutes before, and out to through the huge wooden doors. Andrea stopped at the doors, her hands gripping to the sides of the door, tasting the bile that was rising up in her throat. The world was frozen, everything except the sky was motionless; the people were cowering, the cars were stopped in drive, the birds were stuck in air. Time had officially stopped.

"Everyone is like this," she breathed, fear rising in her voice. "Why are they like this?"

"Fear." He called over his shoulder as he faced east, to her his voice sounded muffled but what he said confused her more.

"What?" Andrea asked, taking a step down as the Doctor turned and bounded up the steps towards her. His hand slipped around her bicep, his face was close as his eyes scoured hers, their faint green reflexion shone in his dark oculus.

"Fear, everyone has it especially humans. Look at them, they're frozen in fear and yet you're still moving around like me." There was a deep silence between them.

"You're different." Almost as if it had been rehearsed, Andrea and the Doctor whispered the two words in perfect unison, shocking each other. Before enough time had passed for the two to react, another massive lightning bolt fired through the sky down towards them, touching down meters away from the Doctor's foot. The two looked down then back at each other.

"We have to go now." The Doctor's voice was urgent, his tone dragging Andrea from her thoughts.

"I can't just leave," she paused to take in the expression the Doctor's face wore. "I have to protect the building, it's my job." She searched his eyes as she protested, not wanting to let her job go to waste. Andrea saw nothing but a burning desire to provide guidance to those around them, she felt compelled to comply with his imperative tone.

"You can protect a lot more than just the science museum if you come with me." The Doctor did not sound as if he was exaggerating, she felt as though she could trust him. And she did. There was an ear piercing screech that permeated the stillness left by the stopping of time, the two frantically looked around to find the epicenter of the noise. Andrea gripped her ears and turned to look inside the museum, she felt her blood run cold.

"Look!" She exclaimed, pointing towards the fiery shadows traversing through the frozen people in the building.

"We have to go, _now_." The Doctor called from two steps down.

"What is that?" The stubborn, curious fear in her voice alarmed the Doctor.

"We have to go." He persisted, when she turned around Andrea saw the nervous pleading in his eyes.

"What is that," she repeated. "What are those things?"

"That is everything that is feared, it's fear itself." She watched as it neared, darkness swallowing the building in darkness as it passed through, coming closer.

"What the hell?" She breathed, her voice littered with disgust.

"Andrea," she turned to him. "Run."


End file.
